We missed the statement PIPA sponsor Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) issued late last week about the urgency of passing anti-piracy legislation. Either Leahy doesn't understand the law written by the lobbyist who donated to him, or it is time for him to retire. In his statement Leahy continues to support a fact that has yet to be proven by any kind of study or research: that piracy from overseas web sites cause the entertainment industry to lose jobs. His former colleague (Senator from Connecticut) and now the president of the Motion Picture Association of America said the same thing the morning after an Internet protest derailed both PIPA and SOPA.

In his statement, Leahy said that he understood Senate Majority Speaker Harry Reid's decision, but warned that the knee-jerk reaction to protests from fellow lawmakers was making criminals in other countries like China and Russia downright jolly:

“I understand and respect Majority Leader Reid’s decision to seek consent to vitiate cloture on the motion to proceed to the PROTECT IP Act. But the day will come when the Senators who forced this move will look back and realize they made a knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem. Somewhere in China today, in Russia today, and in many other countries that do not respect American intellectual property, criminals who do nothing but peddle in counterfeit products and stolen American content are smugly watching how the United States Senate decided it was not even worth debating how to stop the overseas criminals from draining our economy.”

It's ironic that Leahy mentions China and Russia; If he had had his way last week, Americans would be using an Internet that operated much like it does in those countries - heavily censored.

I honestly think that the groups lobbying for the big media corporations, the ESA, MPAA, RIAA, et cetera, are essentially a sneaky way to get past the Sherman Antitrust Act. For the MPAA as an example, watch This Film is Not Yet Rated, an investigative documentary about how the movie rating system works. Specifically, there's a scene where one of the creators of South Park was talking about how the MPAA wouldn't tell him why his movie got an NC-17 when he was an independent filmmaker, but gave him a detailed list of instructions on how to get a lower rating when he was working on the South Park movie.

I heard someone bring up an interesting fact. Everyone involved in making a movie are paid for their services, whether or not the movie makes any money. The only people who's income is based on how much the movie makes in theaters are the studio executives. That may be, and probably is different based on different forms of media, but the outcome is the same.

Disclaimer: Not endorsing piracy in anyway, just relaying something I heard.

That's true. The people that actually make the movies get paid for the work they do. It's the publishers and investors that are losing out on "potential sales" they feel entitled to. It only effects the people who work in the studios when fewer movies are being made, but there are actually more movies being made than in the past. It's clear that this call to action from this dipshits is nothing more than an attempt create a false dilemma so that their paymasters will continue to maintain their media monopolies. They want to be in control and they think that SOPA/PIPA will achieve that.

You are absolutely right. This is not about fighting piracy but about regaining the control they had over distribution in the 90s. They absolutely hate that independent artists are able to create, release and monetize their art with out the need of a gatekeeper. That is really what SOPA and ACTA are about.